• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

33 Charts

  • About
    • What is 33 Charts?
    • Bryan Vartabedian MD
  • Blog
  • 33mail
  • Foci
    • Social/Public Media
    • Physicians
    • Patients
    • Hospitals
    • Information
    • Process/Flow
    • Technology
    • Digital culture
    • Future Medicine
  • The Public Physician
Uncategorized

The Stethoscope in Room 2

January 27, 2011 By Bryan Vartabedian · Reading Time: < 1 minutes

The Stethoscope in Room 2

Thursday is my endoscopy day at Texas Children’s Hospital.  Room 2 in the Endoscopy Suite is where I conduct my business.

If you visit Room 2 you’ll find a stethoscope hanging on the coat hook.  I started scoping here in 1994 and it’s been around as long as I can remember.  Every Thursday as I wash my hands I look at the stethoscope and assume that by next week it will be reunited with its rightful owner.

But it never seems to happen.

There’s an unwritten code in teaching hospitals:  You don’t pick up a stethoscope that’s not your own.  So it sits loyally awaiting its owner.

I’m guessing one of a couple of things about the owner of this stethoscope:

  • They abandoned the stethoscope after the realization that they never really understood how to interpret its sounds.
  • They chose to revert to direct auscultation (ear-to-chest listening).
  • They decided just to order an echo.

Of course there’s always the chance that its owner simply left it by mistake.

Most of us here respect the code.  And like an appendage of history that becomes increasingly less valuable with the passage of time, I suspect that the stethoscope in Room 2 will remain on that hook for years to come.

Related Articles

  • The Waiting Room
  • The Exam Room Entrance
  • Negotiating IT in the Exam Room

Tagged With: Stethoscope

Related Articles

  • The Waiting Room
  • The Exam Room Entrance
  • Negotiating IT in the Exam Room

Primary Sidebar

Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Bryan Vartabedian is the Chief Pediatrics Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin and one of health care’s influential
voices on technology & medicine.
Learn More

Popular Articles

  • The Fate of Fired Cleveland Clinic Resident Lara Kollab
  • Cures Act Final Rule – How It Will Change Medicine
  • 12 Things About Doximity You Probably Didn’t Know
  • Should Physicians Give Their Cell Phone Number to Patients?
  • Doximity Dialer Video – Telemedicine’s Latest Power Player

Sign up for 33mail newsletter

Featured Articles

Reactive and Creative Spaces

Context Collapse and the Public Physician

Doctors and social media: Damned if you engage, damned if you don’t

Will the Future Need Doctors?

Yes, Doctor

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

What is 33 Charts?

With a mashup of curated and original content that crosses the spaces of digital health, media, communication, technology, patient experience, digital culture, and the humanities, 33 charts offers unique insight and analysis on the changing face of medicine.

Founded in 2009 as a center of community and thought leadership for the issues doctors face in a digital world, 33 charts was included in the National Library of Medicine permanent web archive in 2014.
Learn More

Foci

  • Digital culture
  • Digital Health
  • EHR/Health IT
  • Future Medicine
  • Hospitals
  • Information
  • Patients
  • Physicians
  • Process/Flow
  • Quality
  • Social/Public Media
  • Technology

Copyright © 2023 · 33 Charts · Privacy Policy